Candy Factory

We had quite a bit of fun today creating our own homemade lollipops, which I found on a guest post written for a blog called Mess for Less.

Supplies:

Hard candy (Dum Dums, Life Savers, Jolly Ranchers)
Zip lock bags
Meat mallet
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Lollipop sticks

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Have the kids unwrap the candies and place them into ziplock bags according to color.

Next give them a meat mallet and have them crush the candies

Separate the crushed candies by color.

Place some parchment paper on a baking sheet. Then place a cookie cutter on top of it. We used a star cookie cutter here…but really the candies won’t hold their shape when it starts melting, so it’s just best to use a circle or egg shaped cookie cutter.

Have your child add a variety of colors inside each cookie cutter. You’ll want to layer your candies about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. When finished remove the cookie cutter. We also took some Jolly Rancher candies and lined them up. You can do the same with Lifesaver candies.

Tip: I had my kids place the cookie cutter where they wanted on our first tray here…but in the end…my advice is to guide them where to place each one on the tray. You will need to have room to place a lollipop stick when these come out of the oven.

Put them in the oven for about 5-7 minutes. Once you take these out of the oven, immediately place a lollipop stick into each one. Carefully twist the stick into the melted candy to cover the entire stick. Carefully twist the stick to cover the end with the melted candy. Please don’t let the kids do this as they might burn their fingers. If you want, you can also add some sprinkles at this time. Let them cool till they are completely hardened.